As the impact of waste plastic across the globe becomes an increasing concern, two entrepreneurs from Cornwall have launched a new driveway solution, designed to play an important role in utilising plastic which is already in circulation.

Oltco’s unique Recycle Bound driveway solution is now available from existing franchises nationally and new franchisees coming on board will also offer the product moving forward.

Oltco is the UK’s leading independent resin floor specialist and is the world’s first company to offer this environmentally sustainable solution for homeowners and businesses.  Headed up by Directors Tom Stringer and Johnny Pearce and based in the Cornish seaside town of Newquay, Oltco’s in-house experts have developed Recycle Bound using over 15 years’ of technical expertise and specialist skills.

In the UK we throw away 8.5 billion straws every year*. Many of these straws end up polluting our oceans, causing devastating consequences for wildlife across the globe. Oltco is taking steps to help alleviate this through its Recycle Bound solution. Made from waste plastic (straws, plastic drink bottles and plastic food packaging) from a plastic recycling point, each square metre of Recycle Bound consists of the equivalent of 3,000 plastic straws. Therefore if Recycle Bound was laid on a standard 50 square metre drive, the equivalent of 150,000 plastic straws would be recycled in the process.

With its HQ based on the North Cornish coast, the Directors of Oltco, Tom Stringer and Johnny Pearce, were all too aware of the detrimental impact that waste plastic was having on the environment around them, in particular the beaches around Newquay. With vast technical experience in developing, testing and installing innovative resin solutions, Tom and Johnny decided they wanted to help combat this worldwide problem through their services. The team set about creating a unique resin bound blend, made using waste plastic. As part of the development of Recycle Bound, Oltco has been liaising with local community groups to get them on board with supporting the product.

Oltco is confident that as the number of franchises increase across the country, as will interest in Recycle Bound. Directors Tom and Johnny are confident that Recycle Bound will make a difference to waste plastic use on a national scale whilst offering unique selling point for franchises.

Johnny, Co-Director of Oltco, comments: “As a native of Newquay, I became increasingly concerned about the huge amount of waste plastic which was polluting the coastline of Cornwall and beyond. With Newquay being a plastic free zone, the team and I are passionate about making a difference to the community and the world around us, including the natural environment, so it was important to us to try and help.”

Tom, Co-Director of Oltco, said: “We’re proud to be an innovator, not an imitator and as a business we’ve spent the past five years developing unique resin bound solutions. Through our new product design process we decided to explore waste plastic forming part of our blends. After 24 months of intensive development and testing, we’ve launched Recycle Bound as a new, environmentally sustainable option. With franchise opportunities available on a national scale, we believe that Recycle Bound will play an integral role for individual franchisees running and growing successful businesses.”

Oltco’s Recycle Bound solution has the same 20 year guarantee that the company’s other resin bound solutions have and has been thoroughly tried and tested by the expert team. If the driveway needs to be replaced in the future, the Recycle Bound solution can be taken up, then crushed and graded so that it can be re-laid as a base layer for a new driveway. Alternatively a new driveway can be laid directly on top of it.

Recycle Bound has been developed to be even stronger than other resin solutions meaning that the tensile strength is higher, and it can hold more weight. Recycle Bound offers all of the same benefits as Oltco’s other solutions including permeable properties which therefore makes it SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage System) compliant. In addition to this, the melting point of the solution is 250°C meaning that even if the UK has another heatwave, the plastic will not melt in the way that some alternatives would.